The inventive concepts described herein relate to a method of dynamic thermal management.
Generally, a semiconductor device such as a package or a chip is provided with a temperature protecting function that adjusts an operating frequency of the device according to temperature. The principle of such temperature protecting function is to lower temperature of the device by reducing operating frequency when the device reaches a specific temperature.
According to this process, since operating frequency is closely related with performance of the semiconductor device, it is important to adjust the operating frequency so that the semiconductor device accomplishes maximum performance.
A temperature protecting function may be applied by limiting or adjusting operating frequency to a frequency determined per temperature interval. In this case, the overall performance of the device may be standardized downward because rather strict frequency constraints are applied according to temperature, to enable operation of a device having a poorest power characteristic from among devices of the same type.
Accordingly, a method is necessary which can provide proper temperature protection while achieving maximum performance of a semiconductor device.